President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently vowed to "drain the terror swamp" in Qandil, as Turkey ramped up its assault on terror sites across its southern border.

The PKK use the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq as a base for assaults in the region.
(AA Archive)

The Turkish military on Friday said air strikes its forces carried out killed 26 members of the PKK terror group in northern Iraq's Qandil mountain region on June 12, Anadolu Agency reported.

The PKK, which has fought a decades-old insurgency against the state in southeastern Turkey, has bases in the Qandil region.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently vowed to "drain the terror swamp" in Qandil.

Erdogan on Monday said Turkey had launched anti-terror operations in the Qandil and Sinjar regions in northern Iraq.

Turkey’s army chief on Thursday vowed to continue the fight against terror groups.

“We continue fighting against all kinds of threats and terror organisations especially FETO, [and] PKK/PYD/YPG and Daesh with determination,” Chief of General Staff General Hulusi Akar said during a graduation ceremony at the Mountain Commando School in the southwestern province of Isparta.

“Our fight against terrorism will continue uninterrupted in the country and beyond the borders until the last terrorist is destroyed,” Akar added.

The army chief was accompanied by commanders of the Turkish Land, Air and Naval Forces, Generals Yasar Guler and Hasan Kucukakyuz, and Admiral Adnan Ozbal.

On January 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to remove YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists from northwestern Syria's Afrin region. On March 18, day 58 of the operation, Turkish troops and allied FSA militia liberated the town of Afrin.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU – resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015.

Since then, it has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated Turkey's defeated coup on July 15, 2016, which left 250 people dead and nearly 2,200 wounded.